Aquaculture

In many countries, freshwater trout is cherished by people who like tasty seafood, sport fishing or both. Most freshwater trout is farmed. It has been since the early 1900s, making trout aquaculture one of the oldest forms of aquaculture in the world.

Trout farming began in Europe and has expanded to more than 60 countries. Most freshwater farmed trout is rainbow trout. The main rainbow trout producing countries, in descending order of production, are Iran, France, Italy, Denmark, the United States and Spain. These same countries are where most trout is consumed.

Freshwater rainbow trout is produced in a variety of systems, including cages in lakes, flow-through systems, ponds, and recirculating systems. This type of trout can be found in the market as whole fish, fillets, smoked or canned.

Main issues of freshwater trout aquaculture

As with most types of aquaculture species, the farming of freshwater trout can have a negative impact on the environment and society. The key impacts are:

• Water use: The amount of water used on the farm can exceed the carrying capacity of local freshwater resources. Also, alterations of natural water flows may negatively impact the environment.
• Escapees: Trout that escape from farms can compete with wild fish for habitat and breeding grounds. In certain areas, there are problems with escaped fish interbreeding with wild stock, which can alter the overall pool of genetic diversity.
• Habitat conversion: Habitat can be converted to create farms.
• Discharges: Excessive waste can pollute the water and negatively affect the living environment.
• Fish health/welfare and disease transfer: If not managed well, trout production can expose fish to stress and diseases that can impact both farmed and wild stocks.
• Feed ingredients: The feed used in trout production includes a high level of wild caught fish, some from fisheries that are not environmentally sustainable.
• Energy efficiency and carbon footprint: The carbon footprint associated with many farms can be high because of the amount of energy used for water pumps, recirculation systems and other equipment.
• Predator control: Birds and other predators can consume considerable volumes of fish from the farms and cause serious economic losses to the producers.
• Social/community: Freshwater trout aquaculture can conflict with other uses of an area or resource. There may also be issues of labor conditions.

Our solution

To address these impacts, WWF has created the Freshwater Trout Aquaculture Dialogue. The inaugural meeting of the Dialogue was held in November 2008 in Denmark. Meeting participants approved the goals and objectives for the Dialogue, identified the key environmental and social impacts (above) associated with the farming of freshwater trout and drafted principles (below) for addressing each impact. At the second meeting of the Dialogue, held in the Faroe Islands in May 2009, participants drafted the criteria that will aim to provide direction on how to reduce each impact. In November 2009, at a Dialogue meeting in Spain, participants began to develop draft indicators. The Steering Committee that manages the Dialogue process spent the next few months working with technical experts and others to strengthen the indicators so they could be used to create measurable, performance-based standards for freshwater trout farming. 

The first draft of the freshwater trout aquaculture standards was posted for public comment from July to October 2010.  Feedback received during that comment period was used by the Dialogue's Steering Committee to create the second draft of the standards, which was available for public comment from May to July 2011. Feedback received during that comment period was used to create the final draft standards document, which was released on January 19, 2012. The standards will be finalized and then handed over to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) after a guidance manual for auditing trout farms is completed over the next few months.The ASC will be responsible for working with independent, third party entities to certify farms that are in compliance with the standards. 

Principles

Dialogue participants have identified six principles that provide the framework for developing the criteria, indicators and standards for responsible freshwater trout farming.  The principles are:

1. Comply with all applicable international, national and local laws and regulations
2. Conserve local habitat and biodiversity
3. Minimize negative effects on water resources
4. Proactively maintain the health and welfare of cultured fish and minimize risk of disease
   transmission
5. Use resources responsibly
6. Be socially responsible

Learn more

• Trout Dialogue process document
  English / Spanish
• Trout Dialogue meeting reports and presentations
• Trout Dialogue Steering Committee members
• Trout Dialogue fact sheet
• Trout Dialogue work program
• Trout Dialogue outreach plan